C. What I say is this--you must at least allow that they have no sin who cannot sin.
A. I will allow it, if they have been baptized into Christ; and if you will not then immediately bind me to agree with your opinion that a man can be without sin if he chooses; for they neither have the power nor the will; but they are free from all sin through the grace of God, which they received in their baptism.
C. You force me to make an invidious remark and ask, Why, what sin have they committed? that you may immediately have me stoned in some popular tumult. You have not the power to kill me, but you certainly have the will.
A. He slays a heretic who allows him to be a heretic. But when we rebuke him we give him life; you may die to your heresy, and live to the Catholic faith.
C. If you know us to be heretics, why do you not accuse us?
A. Because the [5361] Apostle teaches me to avoid a heretic after the first and second admonition, not to accuse him. The Apostle knew that such an one is perverse and self-condemned. Besides, it would be the height of folly to make my faith depend on another man's judgment. For supposing some one were to call you a Catholic, am I to immediately give assent? Whoever defends you, and says that you rightly hold your perverse opinions, does not succeed in rescuing you from infamy, but charges himself with perfidy. Your numerous supporters will never prove you to be a Catholic, but will show that you are a heretic. But I would have such opinions as these suppressed by ecclesiastical authority; otherwise we shall be in the case of those who show some dreadful picture to a crying child. May the fear of God grant us this--to despise all other fears. Therefore, either defend your opinions, or abandon what you are unable to defend. Whoever may be called in to defend you must be enrolled as a partisan, not as a patron.
18. C. Tell me, pray, and rid me of all doubts, why little children are baptized.
A. That their sins may be forgiven them in baptism.
C. What sin are they guilty of? How can any one be set free who is not bound?
A. You ask me! The Gospel trumpet will reply, the teacher of the Gentiles, the golden vessel shining throughout the world: [5362] "Death reigned from Adam even unto Moses: even over those who did not sin after the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a figure of Him that was to come." And if you object that some are spoken of who did not sin, you must understand that they did not sin in the same way as Adam did by transgressing God's command in Paradise. But all men are held liable either on account of their ancient forefather Adam, or on their own account. He that is an infant is released in baptism from the chain which bound his father. He who is old enough to have discernment is set free from the chain of his own or another's sin by the blood of Christ. You must not think me a heretic because I take this view, for the blessed martyr Cyprian, whose rival you boast of being in the classification of Scripture proofs, in the [5363] epistle addressed to Bishop Fidus on the Baptism of Infants speaks thus: "Moreover, if even the worst offenders, and those who previous to baptism sin much against God, once they believe have the gift of remission of sins, and no one is kept from baptism and from grace, how much more ought not an infant to be kept from baptism seeing that, being only just born, he has committed no sin? He has only, being born according to the flesh among Adam's sons, incurred the taint of ancient death by his first birth. And he is the more easily admitted to remission of sins because of the very fact that not his own sins but those of another are remitted to him. And so, dearest brother, it was our decision in council that no one ought to be kept by us from baptism and from the grace of God, Who is merciful to all, and kind, and good. And whereas this rule ought to be observed and kept with reference to all, bear in mind that it ought so much the more to be observed with regard to infants themselves and those just born, for they have the greater claims on our assistance in order to obtain Divine mercy, because their cries and tears from the very birth are one perpetual prayer."
19. That holy man and eloquent bishop Augustin not long ago wrote to [5364] Marcellinus (the same that was afterwards, though innocent, put to death by heretics on the pretext of his taking part in the tyranny of Heraclian [5365] ) two treatises on infant baptism, in opposition to your heresy which maintains that infants are baptized not for remission of sins, but for admission to the kingdom of heaven, according as it is written in the Gospel, [5366] "Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." He addressed a [5367] third, moreover, to the same Marcellinus, against those who say as do you, that a man can be free from sin, if he chooses, without the help of God. And, recently, a [5368] fourth to Hilary against this doctrine of yours, which is full of perversity. And he is said to have others on the anvil with special regard to you, which have not yet come to hand. Wherefore, I think I must abandon my task, for fear Horace's words may be thrown at me, [5369] "Don't carry firewood into a forest." For we must either say the same as he does, and that would be superfluous; or, if we wished to say something fresh, we should [5370] find our best points anticipated by that splendid genius. One thing I will say and so end my discourse, that you ought either to give us a new creed, so that, after baptizing children into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you may baptize them into the kingdom of heaven; or, if you have one baptism both for infants and for persons of mature age, it follows that infants also should be baptized for the remission of sins after the likeness of the transgression of Adam. But if you think the remission of another's sins implies injustice, and that he has no need of it who could not sin, cross over to Origen, your special favourite, who says that ancient offences [5371] committed long before in the heavens are loosed in baptism. You will then be not only led by his authority in other matters, but will be following his error in this also.
[5282] Prov. x. 19.
[5283] By a Synod under Siricius in a.d. 390.
[5284] The allusion is to the African Synod, held a.d. 412, at which Celestius was condemned and excommunicated.
[5285] Ps. cxxvii. 1.
[5286] 1 Cor. ix. 24.
[5287] v. 12.
[5288] John v. 14.
[5289] 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17.
[5290] 2 Chron. xv. 2.
[5291] The words are those of S. Barnabas. Possibly in Jerome's copy the passage may have been attributed to Ignatius.
[5292] Ps. xvi. 4. Sept. and Vulgate.
[5293] Acts xiii. 32; Ps. lxxxviii. 21.
[5294] 2 Tim. iv. 13.
[5295] Acts xxiii. 2 sq.
[5296] S. John xviii. 23.
[5297] 2 Tim. iv. 14.
[5298] S. John vi. 70.
[5299] Rom. ii. 4, 5.
[5300] iii. 4.
[5301] Jerem. xviii. 7, 8.
[5302] Jonah iv. 10, 11.
[5303] 1 Cor. xi. 6.
[5304] Gen. xxviii. 20 sq.
[5305] Gen. xxxii. 2.
[5306] Gen. xxxii. 31. L. R.V. Penuel. Comp. Mt. xix. 4.
[5307] Ib. 30. The words are Jacob's, but they are attributed to Moses as author.
[5308] Gen. xxxix. 23.
[5309] Gen. xlvi. 3, 4.
[5310] Ex. xi. and xii.
[5311] Prov. iii. 5, 6.
[5312] Ps. v. 8.
[5313] Prov. xvi. 3.
[5314] 2 Cor. ii. 16.
[5315] 2 Cor. iii. 4-6.
[5316] 2 Cor. iv. 7.
[5317] 2 Cor. x. 17, 18.
[5318] 2 Cor. xii. 11.
[5319] S. Luke v. 8.
[5320] S. John xv. 5.
[5321] S. John vi. 44.
[5322] Esther vi. 1.
[5323] Ps. lxxxix. 48.
[5324] Ezek. xviii. 4.
[5325] S. Matt. viii. 25.
[5326] S. Matt. v. 8.
[5327] Ps. cxix. 1.
[5328] Gen. xvii. 1, 2.
[5329] 1 Cor. xiii. 9, 10.
[5330] S. Matt. vii. 11.
[5331] Gen. xvii. 1 sq.
[5332] Ex. xxxiii. 20.
[5333] 1 Tim. i. 17; vi. 16.
[5334] i. 18.
[5335] 1 Cor. iv. 8.
[5336] Cant. iv. 7.
[5337] Phil. ii. 15.
[5338] 1 John iii. 2.
[5339] See S. Aug. De Gest. Pelag. § 16. The widow was Juliana, mother to Demetrias (to whom Jerome addressed his Letter CXXX. "On the keeping of Virginity"). Pelagius' letter to Demetrias is found in Jerome's works (Ed. Vall.), vol. xi. col. 15.
[5340] The whole passage, as quoted by Augustin, runs as follows: "May piety find with thee a place which it has never found elsewhere. May truth, which no one now knows, be thy household friend; and the law of God, which is despised by almost all men, be honoured by thee alone." "How happy, how blessed art thou, if that justice which we are to believe exists only in heaven is found with thee alone upon earth." Then follow the words quoted above.
[5341] S. Luke xviii. 11.
[5342] Prov. xiii. 8.
[5343] Is. xiv. 13, 14. Spoken of the King of Babylon.
[5344] Ps. xxxviii. 7. Vulg.
[5345] Ibid. 5.
[5346] Ps. cxliii. 2.
[5347] Ibid. 4.
[5348] Ps. cxvi. 11.
[5349] Rom. iii. 4.
[5350] Is. vi. 5.
[5351] Ps. cxx. 3. Vulg.
[5352] James iii. 2.
[5353] Ps. xxii. 2; Sept. and Vulgate. S. Matt xxvii. 46, R.V., "and from the words of my roaring."
[5354] S. Luke xxiii. 46.
[5355] S. Luke xxiii. 34.
[5356] S. Matt. xi. 25.
[5357] Ps. xxi. 1.
[5358] S. Luke xviii. 13.
[5359] Is. iii. 12.
[5360] The grandfather of the Triumvir, born b.c. 142, died in the civil conflict excited by Marius, b.c. 87.
[5361] Tit. iii. 10.
[5362] Rom. v. 14.
[5363] Cyp. Ep. 64 (al. 59). S. Augustine preaching at Carthage on June 27, 413, quoted the same letter, which was a Synodical letter of a.d. 253. See Bright's Anti-Pelagian Treatises, Introduction, p. xxi.
[5364] Marcellinus was the lay imperial commissioner appointed to superintend the discussion between the Catholics and Donatists at the Council of Carthage, a.d. 411. In 413 Heraclian, governor of Africa, revolted against Honorius, the Emperor, and invaded Italy. The enterprise failed, and on his return to Africa the promoter of it was put to death. The Donatists, called by Jerome "heretics," are supposed to have accused Marcellinus of taking part in the rebellion. He was executed in 414.
[5365] "On the Deserts and Remission of Sins, and the Baptism of Infants," in three books, the earliest of S. Augustin's Anti-Pelagian treatises. It was composed in reply to a letter from his friend Marcellinus, who was harassed by Pelagianising disputants. See S. Aug. "De Gest. Pel." § 25.
[5366] S. John iii. 3.
[5367] The "De Spiritu et Littera." Marcellinus found a difficulty in Augustin's view of the question of sinlessness. See Bright's Anti-Pelagian Treatises, Introduction, p. xix.
[5368] Whether he who was made Bishop of Arles, in 429, is disputed. The treatise was the "De Natura et Gratia," written early in 415.
[5369] Sat. i. 10.
[5370] Or, better positions have been occupied.
[5371] Origen held the pre-existence of souls, endowed with free will, and supposed their condition in this world to be the result of their conduct in their previous state of probation.